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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

June - Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

The 15th of every month garden writers throughout the blogosphere take part in this monthly event originated by May Dreams Gardens. It's an opportunity to observe and comment on what plants/flowers are thriving in gardens throughout the US and the world.

Meet Morticia...
For the next few days Galveston will host a very special horticultural event. It's the blooming of amorphophallus titanum - the Corpse Flower (affectionately named Morticia) at Moody Garden's Rainforest Pyramid.

You can check out daily progress from their webcam. Images update every minute.

Additional info from the MG website...
This plant is commonly referred to as a giant corpse flower because of the stench produced during pollination. Native only to Sumatra, Indonesia, the plant emits a strong odor that resembles rotting flesh. This aroma attracts carrion beetles and sweat flies that are critical to the pollination process. They enter the flower and go searching for the rotting flesh they smell. Instead they find themselves trapped inside, picking up pieces of pollen and hopefully dropping some from other corpse flowers. When they finally make their way back out, they carry pollen to the next corpse flower they come to.

I know, you’re thinking so what, a flower is blooming, they do this all the time. But not corpse flowers. Considered the largest blooming flower in the world, corpse flowers do not bloom that frequently. They have no regular blooming cycle.

Since 1998, 84 plants have bloomed in U.S. facilities such as botanical gardens and zoos. Before that, there was a bloom in New York in 1937. Before that, the only other bloom recorded was the first one observed in 1889 in London. It attracted such attention police were required to control the crowds.